News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-10-20
MYSTERIES OF A DAY.
STRANGE THINGS WE FIND RE-
CORDED IN THE PAPERS.
What a Builder Says-On IA Steam
boat-A Smuggling BOy-The
Death Rate-A Pickle Factory,
&c, &c,

n What a Builder Says-On a Steam
b boat-A Smuggling Boy-Th
h Death Rate-A Pickle Factory
i &C., &c.
AN INTELLIGENT and practical builde
q states it as the result of his experience
, and observation that mortar in the III
terror of walls, especially if it be wha
n is called erich" mortar, is liable neve
;, to harden, bat to retain its soft cOrsis
9 tency for centuries: but this can only
! be the case where the interior of the
;. wall is Theoretically sealed against the
external air, which method both arrests
, evaporation and shuts off the chemica
f operation of the atmosphere. The fact
has been stated that in England, not
long ago, an architect dug into Il wal
300 years old and of considerable thick
, ness, and took from between tie stones
{ a quantity of mortar as soft as it must
! have been the day the wall was built,
and discoveries of the same character
have been made i'll other places 1t is
, also stated that the possibility of such
, an occurrence may be tested in a very
easy way, namely, by putting some rich
; mortar into glass bottle and hermeti-
, cally sealing 1.-THE fact being that il
, will never become any harder than when
, it was put into it.
| A QUARRYMAN residing near Lookout
Point, high peak in the Black Hills
, country, recently found a flat stone
| leaning against a large oak tree. The
tree had grown around the edge of the
) stone, showing that the position of the
stone had been the same for many
, years. On the side of the stone were
the names of seven men, and this in
scription: "Came to these hills III 1888
seven of us. All dead but me, Ezra
Kind. Killed by Ind. beyond the high
hill. Got our gold. June, 1854" On
the other side of the stone was this: Got
all the gold we could carry. Our ponies
all got by the Indians. [ have lost my
hunting" The last of the inscrip-
ton is illegible.
FREDERICKsBUG, Va has big pickle
factory that is supplied with cucum-
bers from the land adjoining the city.
This season the supply has reached 3d.
100000 cucumbers, those engaged in
their production furnishing from 200,-
900 to 100000 each. An acre will pro-
duce 100000, and they sell in Freder-
icksburg at so cents per 1 ZOO. The OBJ
ject is to got them an inch or an inch
and half long, and it requires active
picking before they increase this size.
A boy will pick 5000 in a day. Picking
them thus early increases the product
ivness of the vine, and while the season
lasts others are appearing in place of
those taken from the vine.
"THE most marvellous thing [ saw on
my trip to Alaska" said traveller late
ly, "was the vast body of gold ore that
! few rich men own and work on Douglass
Island. A huge mountain covers the is
land, rising right out of the water, with
no foot hills at all. 1t is apparently
! solid body of ore. Off the top of this
| 100000 in gold was washed, and the
face of the body of ore has frontage of
1000 feet. Every day 1000 tons are
got out that carry $500 worth of gold,
| and that are milled at a cost of about 81
per ton. This is the richest mine in the
world, and beats the Comstock out Of
sight. Yet very few persons know that
it is in existence.
SIX hundred dollars seems to be n
large price for one cherry tree, but that
was the sum paid for onei in Santa Clara
County. 1t was required to be removed
to make way for the new Almaden Rail
road, in Nevada. The owner demanded
5000 for it; experts were appointed, and
it was proved that the tree had for years
yielded the owner crops of fruit which
sold for sums equivalent to the interest
on the amount claimed. BY cOmpro-
mise 5000 was accepted for the tree.
This will give our Eastern friends some
idea of the value of fruit trees and the
profit derived from them in Santa
Clara Valley.
SAYS an old deckhand on steam
boat: ''There is one peculiar supersti-
ton among steamboatmen that does not
lose any of its interest by age. When
ever a minister and white horse hap
pen to make the trip at the same time
on q steamboat, there is always an acct
dent of some kind to follow 1t may
not be always to the steamboat, but it
is certain to be to the boat OF some of
the passengers. This superstition is so
strong among the deckhands that they
will positively refuse to go on a boat
which carries a minister and q white
horse"
the supposition that f'every reader of a
daily newspaper is often conscious that
he knows much better how to run a
paper so as to give general satisfaction
than the editor himself" has invited its /
readers to contribute articles giving
their views as to how a newspaper should |
be conducted. Probably a fair proper
ton of the persons for whom the invita-
/, I, L
the effect that that's no way to find out
how to run a newspaper.
A HUMOROUS incident is told of the |
work of women ON the New York School /
Board. A ianitor of one of the schools .
came, last week, with complaint to the .
principal He said he had been ianitor
of that building for nineteen years, and .
no one had ever asked to see the base /
ment until one of the women of the /
School Board came recently, and said .
she wanted to make an examination. /
"And that basement wasn't in a fit CON
ditiOn for any one to See, he added, /
plaintively.
Towns ALONG the Mexican border are .
in favor of an international dollar-gOod |
for its face in both countries. AS it .
stands now a man can cross over to .
Mexico, put down Mexican dollar for
a drink, and get United States dollar
for change. Then he can come back,
put down the United States dollar for q
drink and get Mexican dollar for
change. And then he can repeat. No
financial situation could be more de
moralizing i'll a small way.
In a sandpit near Omaha two enor-
nous teeth have been dug up. The
naturalist who tells the story of their
discovery says that they must have be
longed to some animal that was at least
''siX times rs large as the modern Gle
plant" and that ate timber as steady
diet. Maybe the existence of such an
animal accounts for the vast praircs of
the West, and that he starved TO death
when the supply of timber gave out.
ONE OF THE attractions of a fair in
McHenry county, ILL.,, was the marriage
of volunteer couple, to whom presents
valued at 5000 were to be given The
couple came to the scratch and were
married in the presence of the multi
tnde, but it was charged that they had
already had the knot tied elsewhere,
and the managers Of the fair are with
holding the presents pending the result
of an investigation.
THERE are two church bells at Mes
silla, Mexico, that are valuable They
were cast i'll 1775. and it is said that
just before the casting was made, at
least 81 900 worth of gold and silver
:. 4 ~ IA